As announced last September by Hobie Cat President Doug Skidmore ( Original Announcement ), we made the decision to replace all Tandem Island and 2011 Adventure Island rudder systems. Last fall, all boats had been provided a temporary retrofit kit to hold the rudder down. Where we had contact information for retail owners, kits were sent directly to those customers.

We are now ready to begin the replacement phase of the project and will start shipping kits this week. The process will take several months to complete. These kits are provided at no charge to dealers and consumers. We will reimburse our dealers for installation labor in situations where the consumer requests installation by the dealer.

Here is a look at the new system:

The new rudder no longer employs the "Twist and Stow" system. The rudder blade simply rotates straight down for sailing and straight up for storage. This straight (versus a twist) rotation allows the rudder to more easily be held in the down position by the rope controls for sailing. The rudder can be used partially deployed, which allows for shallow water steering during launches and landings, thereby giving more positive control of the boat. The rudder foil shape is thicker, which provides better rudder response as well as increased strength. The new system has been well tested and feedback from users has been tremendous—a vast improvement for our Island products!

Boats built or in inventory at Hobie Cat Company as of April 11, 2011 have had the new rudder system installed.

Kit Distribution The following information pertains to the North American Region only. For other regions, contact your dealer or regional distributor for information.

We have serial numbers of all boats shipped to dealers that require the rudder replacement, and we have cross-referenced data from our warranty registration system of consumers who purchased those boats from the dealer. We will ship direct to consumers when we have their information. The balance of kits will be shipped to dealers.

If you have not already registered your boat in our warranty system, contact your dealer to confirm your desire for shipping a kit direct to you or to the dealer. We will make every effort to ship a kit direct to you (when informed by the dealer) if not already shipped to the dealer.

Looks like it will be very functional. A big plus for being able to steer in shallow water.Not so sure about ease of transport though. I guess you could remove the rudder pin? Is that how Hobie will be transporting the hulls to dealers?

On April the 13th I bought a 2011 TI manufactured in March 2011 (as the hull # says) and the dealer did not inform me of this upgrade, so that I could have had the option to wait a little bit and buy the one with the new rudder already installed.Now I would like to know how long will it take hobie to send me the new rudder since in two months I will be moving overseas...

YES! Just in time for S. Florida Summer sailing. I too look forward to installing this soon. Thanks Matt and Hobie for once again demonstrating their commitment and dedication to their loyal customers.

I would like to know how long will it take hobie to send me the new rudder since in two months I will be moving overseas...

If you registered your warranty with us at that time... and if you are in North America, you should be seeing a rudder within the month, I would guess. As noted in the announcement, it will take us several months to build and ship all the required kits. Consumers overseas will have a bit longer wait as we will sea freight these I believe.

The instruction video between 8 and 9 minutes into the instructions demonstrates how to connect the tiller controls to the lines of the new rudder. It seems there may be an error when he says to connect the line that turns the tiller to the right and connect that to the left or port side of the rudder - shouldn't it be to the right or starboard side of the rudder?

The control lines cross inside the boat. The line he pulls to make the tiller go right is actually the control line that makes the rudder turn left. Imagine when those lines are connected... turn the tiller left, it pulls forward on that line connection and makes the rudder turn left. Confusing I know, but follow the instruction.

Thanks Matt. the control lines crossing makes it easier to visualize. Showing the tiller hard right while the rudder is hard left in the video doesn't mean a hard right tiller leads to a hard left rudder but just the opposite - a hard right tiller leads to hard right rudder due to the criss cross. But to connect it, you need to know which line to pull on so that is why the video shows the rudder in hard left position while the tiller is hard right.

Thanks Matt. the control lines crossing makes it easier to visualize. Showing the tiller hard right while the rudder is hard left in the video doesn't mean a hard right tiller leads to a hard left rudder but just the opposite - a hard right tiller leads to hard right rudder due to the criss cross. But to connect it, you need to know which line to pull on so that is why the video shows the rudder in hard left position while the tiller is hard right.